In 2018 the police and other security forces in Germany killed 11 people. In New Zealand they killed one man. In the United States police killed 1,503 people in 2018, and in the Philippines police probably killed around 6,000--the number is approximate. I'd like to focus on the comparison between New Zealand (1 death) and the USA (1,503 deaths). What factors explain the difference?
One attempted explanation is the bad apple theory (bad apples killed 1,503 people). Another theory is that if we retrain the police, they will develop new, gentler personalities and kill fewer people.
NZ has about one-seventieth the population of America. To be fair, we should multiply New Zealand's one death a year by 70, making the difference a less striking 1,503 to 70. Also NZ has a commonsense system of gun control. The main difference, maybe, is that the police academies in NZ won't admit a potential shooter. Shooters get screened out in prolonged testing. For police academies (and Harvard) the old rule applies: what comes in is what goes out. New Zealand hires nonviolent officers.
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